- The Sceptical Chymist
"The Sceptical Chymist or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes" is the title of
Robert Boyle 's masterpiece of scientific literature, published inLondon in1661 . In the form of a dialogue, the "Sceptical Chymist" presented Boyle's hypothesis that matter consisted of atoms and clusters ofatoms in motion and that every phenomenon was the result of collisions of particles in motion. He appealed to chemists to experiment and asserted thatexperiment s denied the limiting ofchemical element s to only the classic four: earth, fire, air, and water. He also pleaded that chemistry should cease to be subservient to medicine or toalchemy , and rise to the status of a science. Importantly, he advocated a rigorous approach to scientific experiment: he believed all theories must be proved experimentally before being regarded as true. For these reasons Robert Boyle has been called the founder of modernchemistry . [cite book | last = Partington | first = J. R. | title = A Short History of Chemistry | publisher = Macmillan | year = 1951 | pages = 67 (2nd edition)] .The "Sceptical Chymist" is well written, enlivened with touches of humour, as when the alchemists are compared with "the Navigators of Solomon's Tarshish Fleet, who brought home … not only Gold, and Silver, and Ivory, but Apes and Peacocks too", since their theories "either like Peacock's feathers make a great shew, but are neither solid nor useful; or else, like Apes, if they have some appearance of being rational, are blemish'd with some absurdity or other which makes them appear ridiculous." The chief value of "The Sceptical Chymist", aside from its main message, was the wealth of chemical experiment that showed the chemist how to employ standard terms and
nomenclature in chemical explanation and also presented new chemical fact.Its influence can be discerned in
Nicholas Brady 's reference to "jarring seeds" in his Ode to St. Cecilia (set byHenry Purcell in 1691, well beforeDaniel Bernoulli 'skinetic theory ):
:"Soul of the World! Inspir'd by thee,"
:"The jarring Seeds of Matter did agree,"
:"Thou didst the scatter'd Atoms bind,"
:"Which, by thy Laws of true proportion join'd,"
:"Made up of various Parts one perfect Harmony."References
External links
* [http://oldsite.library.upenn.edu/etext/collections/science/boyle/chymist Electronic copy of the book at schoenberg center for electronic text & image]
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